NOTE: I wrote this for the Nov 13, 2013 IMTS Insider
The Myth of Lean Manufacturing
By: Dave Edstrom
For the vast majority of manufacturers who say they are doing “lean”,
or lean manufacturing, it is an absolute myth. They are either kidding
themselves or are clueless on what lean manufacturing
actually means. Let’s take a look at why the title of this IMTS Insider story is absolutely true.
When I speak to audiences on MTConnect, I like to ask a number of
questions. I do this to learn more about the audience, as well as to
engage the participants to think about their own plants or shops. Where
there might be multiple choices, I need to properly define exactly the
definition of the words I am using before I ask an audience question.
An example of this is shop floor monitoring. What I explain is that
shop floor monitoring is not someone walking around with a clipboard,
writing down the status of the stack lights and then returning to his
desk to put that information into a spreadsheet and finally email it to
management.
Shop floor monitoring is the ability to know exactly what is
happening on your shop floor, anytime, anyplace and on any device. If
you cannot pickup your smart phone and immediately see what is happening
that femtosecond on your plant floor, then you are not monitoring your
shop.
One of the audience participation questions that I ask is, “raise
your left hand if you are doing lean manufacturing.” Invariably, 70 to
80 percent of the hands go up. The next question I ask is “put your left
hands back up if you are doing lean and keep them up while I ask the
second question. If you are monitoring your shop floor please also raise
your right hand.” Invariably, only 1 to 2 percent of the right hands go
up. I then say, “unless you have both hands up right now, you might
think you are doing lean, but you are not. You are kidding yourselves
because you simply cannot be doing lean manufacturing because you do not
know what is
really happening on your shop floor.” I have never been challenged on this because it is simply a fact.
Lean manufacturing is a very broad term, but at its core it involves a
set of practices that emphasizes reducing waste and doing more with
less in all aspects of the business. You can only know if you are
wasting resources if you know what is happening on your shop or plant
floor. Without data you can’t be doing lean. Many also believe lean manufacturing is much more and that it
includes customers, employees, managers, it is a business strategy,
reducing development costs, increasing productivity, using the minimal
number of resources, creating value streams, Overall Equipment
Effectiveness (OEE), creating future state implementations, Kaizen,
Hoshin, mura, muda, muri, 5S, six sigma, etc.
One of my favorite quotes is from Lord Kelvin: "in physical science
the first essential step in the direction of learning any subject is to
find principles of numerical reckoning and practicable methods for
measuring some quality connected with it. I often say that when you can
measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know
something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot
express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meager and unsatisfactory
kind; it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely in
your thoughts advanced to the state of Science, whatever the matter may
be." Stated more succinctly, "if you cannot measure it, you cannot
improve it.” Stated in just five words, "to measure is to know."
In internationally known manufacturing and OEE expert Bob Hansen’s
seminal book, “Overall Equipment Effectiveness – A Powerful
Production/Maintenance Tool for Increased Profits”, he discusses
world-class manufacturing. Specifically, Hansen says, “World-class
manufacturing areas share two characteristics. They are data driven and
they are led by synergistic multi-function leadership teams. Accurately
measuring and driving key success parameters contributes to higher
productivity for both the area and the plant.” You cannot do OEE with
quantifying metrics.
If you want to do lean manufacturing, then the first thing you need
to do, as a manufacturer is to measure and monitor what is happening on
the shop floor. MTConnect is how you enable manufacturing equipment to
make data available in an easy to read format using standard Internet
protocols. After you MTConnect your shop floor, the next logical step is
acquire a shop floor monitoring program so you can know what is
happening and making changes accordingly to reduce costs and improve
production. There are
white papers
at MTConnect.org that can help you get started. Specifically, there
are three white papers you should read if you truly want to do lean
manufacturing by quantifying what is on your shop floor.
- Getting Started With MTConnect Guide: Connectivity Guide
- Getting Started With MTConnect: Shop Floor Monitoring, What’s In It For Me?
- Getting Started With MTConnect: Writing Client Applications
In summary, don’t kid yourself into believing that you are doing lean
manufacturing if you are not monitoring your shop floor. Get started
with MTConnect today if you are serious about lean manufacturing.
